Sarah Michelle Gellar

"My thirst is to do things that are different, that haven't been done, that I've never experienced before," Gellar says.

Sara De Boer/Retna

10/21/2004 AT 06:00 AM EDT

She may be a scream queen, but Sarah Michelle Gellar sees her screen flirtation with the supernatural another way: "This is the field where women can really rule." Just in time for Halloween, the actress, who had a cult following as TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, stars in The Grudge, a remake of a Japanese horror film. Gellar, 27, recently talked about playing with ghosts, filming in Japan and hanging out with husband Freddie Prinze Jr.

Do you believe in ghosts?I believe in the idea of spirits. I've been to houses where murders have happened and you have that feeling, that sort of eerie feeling. I get a lot of deja vu. I always feel like I've been here, and experienced this. Maybe I'm just crazy, but I definitely believe in the idea of something that powerful transcending.

What was the difference between doing this movie and Scream 2?Cleavage. You could not wear a turtleneck in those movies.

Do you think you're being set up as the next Jamie Lee Curtis – a scream queen?No. I don't scream at all in this movie, if you'll notice. I yelp a lot. ... (Horror) is the field where women can really rule. I'm not the girlfriend. I'm not the wife. This is where women can take a hold of a movie and have a proactive job and the guy is the boyfriend, and people want to see the women be triumphant.

More on Gellar

Were you recognized in Tokyo?You know, the first three months that I was there, I obviously stood out a little bit being a little blonde American girl abroad, but I (had) a little bit of anonymity ... I was able to really experience something that I had desired for so long on a real level, not coming in through a back entrance and keeping my head down at a tourist attraction.